'94 Argentina Bomber Is Identified

BUENOS AIRES — A Hezbollah militant has been identified as the suicide bomber who flattened a Jewish community center in 1994, killing 85 people, prosecutors said Wednesday.

They said investigators had traveled to Detroit, where friends and relatives identified a photo of Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a 21-year-old Lebanese citizen.

Berro was driving a van packed with explosives July 18, 1994, when it exploded outside the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Assn., prosecutor Alberto Nisman alleged.

The blast leveled the seven-story building, a symbol of Argentina's more than 200,000-strong Jewish population.

Berro had been identified as the suspected bomber in a resolution passed July 22, 2004, by the U.S. House that urged a solution to the case. The resolution said he reportedly had been in contact with the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires.

Iran had no immediate comment on the latest developments. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack. Leaders of Argentina's Jewish community accused Iran of organizing it, but Tehran repeatedly has denied that.